How Steve Jobs Got Sick, Got Better, And Decided To Save Some Lives

Tomorrow, the California State Senate's health committee will review a bill that, if passed, will make California the first state in the nation to create a live donor registry for kidney transplants. The bill will also require California drivers to decide whether they want to be organ donors when they renew their drivers' licenses.

According to one notable supporter, this second measure alone should double the number of organ transplants available in California.

The bill, proposed by state senator Elaine Alquist, is set to sail through the health committee, onto the state senate floor, and, eventually, into California state law. One California political insider told us: "I haven't heard anybody come out against this." Last week, the bill cleared the state senate's transportation committee with an 8-0 vote.

And yet, despite California State Senate Bill 1395's near universal support, the ideas behind the bill had languished for years on the desk of Senator Elaine Alquist.

In fact, the idea of a registry for living kidney donors only gained enough political support from Alquist's senate colleagues and the governor to make it into a formal bill this past March thanks to one man: Apple CEO Steve Jobs.

More specifically, the bill exists today -- and the law will, in all likelihood, exist in the future -- thanks to Steve Jobs's illness last year and the huge, expensive effort it took for him to find a liver donor.

In the summer of 2008, Steve Jobs appeared on stage at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco's Moscone Center to introduce the latest version of the iPhone. Observers were shocked at Steve's emaciated appearance. Steve looked so bad, that, not wanting to be in the business of mocking a dying man, Dan Lyons soon quit writing his satirical blog Fake Steve Jobs.

Apple PR tried to tell reporters that Steve caught a "common bug" and that he'd regain his weight soon.

But he didn't. In December 2008, Steve shocked the media and worried friends by announcing that he would not deliver Apple's keynote at the upcoming 2009 Macworld Convention. Apple again tried to suggest Steve's health had nothing to do with the issue, but two weeks into the new year, the company and the CEO announced he would be taking a leave of absence in order to deal with a "hormone imbalance."

Here's what was really happening: Steve Jobs's liver was failing and he was learning that he needed to replace it or else he would die.

Around this time, Steve began looking for a new liver. Unfortunately, he wasn't the only one doing so in California. In fact, over 3,400 Californians were waiting for a new liver in 2009. Only 671 got one. 400 died.